58o 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] 



BLUE-TONGUED LIZARDS. 

 A female with her family of twelve. 



salmon-pink. The tongue of 

 this lizard, which gives to it 

 its popular title, is somewhat 

 remarkable. It is large and 

 flat, and of a bright blue tint, 

 resembling nothing so much 

 as a piece of blue flannel. 

 The animal, as it moves about y 

 is in the habit of constantly 

 protruding and retracting its- 

 tongue, which consequently 

 constitutes a very conspicuous 

 object. In common with the 

 majority of its allies, the blue- 

 tongued lizard is viviparous ;. 

 but while the stump-tail only 

 produces one at a time, which 

 is nearly half as large as the 

 parent, the present form gives 

 birth to as many as ten or 

 twelve. An example in the writer's possession on one occasion presented him with a litter 

 embracing the larger number, and afforded the material for the photograph here reproduced. 



As a contrast to the two preceding forms, the SPINE-TAILED LIZAEDS, with their short, flat r 

 spiky tails, may be cited as a conclusion to this notice of the Skink Family. There are 

 nine known members of the same genus, all inhabitants of Australia. The lower of the two- 

 forms here figured is especially abundant on one island of the Abrolhos group, off the 

 Western Australian coast. This example is represented at about two-thirds of its natural 

 size. It is an interesting fact that an allied but considerably larger species monopolises 

 a neighbouring island of the same group, the two species not intermingling : probably 

 the larger one would prey on the smaller. The largest member of the genus, known 

 as CUNNINGHAM'S SPINE-TAIL, of a uniform black hue, peppered white, is not infrequently 

 brought to Europe, and two examples which were for some years in the writer's possession 



bred regularly, producing eight 

 or ten young at a time 

 for several consecutive years. 

 The fact that these lizards 

 enjoyed full liberty in a 

 heated greenhouse, with a 

 temperature and surrounding 

 conditions closely identical 

 with those to which they 

 were naturally accustomed, no- 

 doubt contributed extensively 

 to their fertility. 



With this group we are 

 compelled by lack of space 

 to close our account of the 

 true lizards, but the reader 

 must understand that only a 



^ fgW Ut f ^OmiOUS 

 SPINE-TAILED LIZABDS, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. ^^ ^ ^^ mentioned 



at all 



These lizards are essentially vegetarian in their habits. 



